Congress. Forcing Americans into the future

Whether they want to be or not.

Take sand and add heat to make glass
AND
metal and heat to make the base
ADD
Vacuum
====================================
Incandescent light bulb
Just plug and play, toss when done


BUT
Take sand and heat to make glass
ADD
A coating of Phosphorous
ADD
An emmisive substance to the filaments (on both sides)
ADD
Argon
AND
Mercury
======================================
Fluorescent tube

THEN (nope, not ready yet)

ADD
A starter switch (made of Aluminum and copper)

THEN (still not ready)
A Ballast (made of copper and usually steel)


FINALLY
You put these together and shrink it into a nice happy looking ice cream cone shape and you have a Compact fluorescent light.

That in it's life span probably uses more resources then the incandescent will.

BUT hey, it's environmentally friendly, right?
Nope- remember the Mercury?
You're supposed to drive it down to a special recycling center -probably in a cr@ppy part of town 20 miles away (so add the gas used carbon foot print to it's effect, too)


I use CFLs because I got tired of replacing incandescent bulbs in inaccessible spaces, and if I ever have to toss them, they'll be going with the regular trash.
driving Libs who'll make sure that you know how they're going out of their way to recycle those Which I assume all those OTHER millions of MANDATED CFLs will be too. Except for the Prius driving Libs who'll make sure you know that they're going out of their way to recycle their CFLs.

To save the planet, you know.

UPDATE
I'd bet (knowing our Gov't and their greenie friends) that there'll be a 'processing fee' of some kind. You know...for the children.